Superintendent, Paul Imhoff

My family and I became part of the Upper Arlington family in 2013, and we quickly learned what has drawn people to this special place for so many years. It's more than the tree-lined streets and beautiful parks - it's a deep sense of community pride and cooperation.

While I am proud to be a member of this great community and a parent in this fantastic school district, I am humbled to serve as its superintendent. It is an honor to work with this fine group of educators as they make a positive impact in the lives of our students. I am invigorated by the thoughts of what is yet to come. Over the next few years, we will be laying the groundwork to build upon the district's tradition of excellence and reach even greater levels of achievement and opportunity for all students.

If you have any ideas or questions about our schools, please feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Paul's posts:

Community input needed in next phase of master planning

Since the fall of 2015, Upper Arlington Schools and a large group of community members have been working to develop the best options to ensure our aging schools can serve our students for decades into the future.

Just last month, the Board of Education, based on your feedback, approved a master plan outlining what those options are: rebuilding the high school, renovating or rebuilding all five elementary schools and repairing the middle schools and Burbank Early Childhood School.

While we have a master plan in place, we have several more months ahead in the facilities master planning process to really dig down into the details of the master plan — the funding, phasing and scope of the work.

Of course one of the big questions is, how much will this cost us all as residents? The answer is that we simply still don’t know yet, and we need your help to determine that. Let me explain how the remaining months of the process will work and how you can get involved.

The third and final phase of the master planning process, the decisions phase, begins this month. Treasurer Andrew Geistfeld is already working to form a Financial Advisory Board (FAB) made up of community volunteers with experience in financial management or the management of businesses that have undertaken considerable facilities and construction work.

Beginning in January, these experts will review the district’s future operating funding needs, the scope and cost of the master plan, and the funding and phasing of the master plan.

They will draft initial findings on these key considerations, and we will then ask UA residents to share their thoughts on the funding, phasing and scope of the master plan. We’ll hold community-wide meetings and building team meetings, and we’ll again gather feedback through a community-wide online survey and a phone survey.

We’ll also ask residents to share their thoughts on the two rebuild options for the high school that we brought into the decisions phase and some other points that will need to be decided by the end of the decisions phase. You can learn more about those additional considerations and the decisions phase on our website, www.uaschools.org/facilities.

The FAB members will come back together to review all these points of community feedback and then draft a briefing paper for the treasurer with their thoughts on the funding, phasing and scope of the master plan.

After reviewing the FAB’s work, Treasurer Andrew Geistfeld will make a recommendation to the Board of Education on the funding, phasing and scope of the master plan and the district’s operating levy needs. The Board is expected to take action soon after, and UA residents will likely see a combined operating levy and bond issue on the ballot in November 2017.

We’ll be reaching out to the community, through mailers, Facebook, Twitter and our website about how to get involved during this final phase of the process. We want to hear from as many of you as possible — because your voice matters!